Aurora | Harry Potter

chapter seventy-one

As soon as Draco walks into the room, I see an obvious pain in his eyes, even before he makes eye contact with me. Once he sees that I'm here, he inhales sharply but subtly and I can only look at him with sorrow, wishing he didn't have to be in this scenario.

Lucius practically grabs Draco and turns him around to face Bellatrix, who's holding Harry's face up by his hair, an excited and evil smile on her face. "Well?" She asks, showing all her rotten teeth as she grins at Draco, who mutters that he can't be sure if it is Harry.

When I see Lucius seize Draco's neck with no restraint, I try to wiggle out of Scabior's grip, but he pulls me back and leans into my ear, his breath making my skin crawl. "Calm it, beautiful," he whispers in my ear in a flirty, lustful tone, "don't do something you'll regret." I try not to react as I stop fighting his grip, holding my breath as Draco is coaxed to kneel in front of Harry by Bellatrix, who urges him to look closely at Harry.

"What's wrong with his face?" He asks, cocking his head to the side slightly. Bellatrix reiterates the question, and then she stands up to slowly walk over to Hermione, Ron and myself, grinning at us all. "He came to us like that," answers the Snatcher holding back Hermione and I feel my body grow tenser as he adds, "something he picked up in the forest, I reckon". Her eyes scan over all our faces and when they land on mine, her grin seems to extend slightly.

"Or ran into a Stinging Jinx, was it you, dear?" She asks, staring into my eyes and when her eyebrows raise ever so slightly, I realise that she recognises my face, even though she doesn't acknowledge it. "Give me her wand," she demands, "let's see what her last spell was."

Scabior pulls out my wand from my trouser pocket and hands it to Bellatrix, who examines it and chuckles aloud, whilst I try to remain as stone-faced as possible. 

Then, she sees one of the Snatchers holding the Sword.

"What is that?" She gasps, disbelief in her voice, "where did you get that from?" The Snatcher hands the Sword over to Bellatrix, whose eyes dart up and down the weapon, and when I see him point over at me, my breath hitches and my nerves start to go haywire.

"We found it in her bag when we searched her."

When Bellatrix whips her head around and glares at me, I see nothing but pure anger and hatred burning in her eyes. She storms over and reaches her hand out to grab me by my shirt collar, dragging me out of the Scabior's clutches, and shouts at Draco's mother to put Ron, Hermione and Harry in the cellar.

"I want to have a little conversation with this one, girl to girl!" She snaps, spitting in my face venomously. I watch as Draco's mother pushes the group into Wormtail's hands and as they are pulled downstairs, helpless looks on their face. The last thing I see from them are Harry's pleading eyes before Bellatrix grabs my face and twists it around, forcing me to make eye contact with her.

She doesn't even say anything before she whips her wand out and aims it at my chest, an evil grimace on her face. "CRUCIO!" The spell hits me right in the chest and my legs cave in on the rest of my body, sending me writhing and wriggling to the floor. My arms and legs start to twitch madly and I can't stop screaming, tears streaming down my cheeks as the pain just grows more and more intense, my skin feels like it's burning.

Blinking through all my tears, I look up to see Bellatrix cackling at the pain I'm in, although I can't quite hear her through my screams and the overwhelming pain. Behind her, I see Draco being held back by his mother, a few tears leaving his eyes.

Just as the pain starts to ease off, I watch helplessly as Bellatrix climbs on top of my and pulls out a sharp dagger, her evil and rotten smile growing by the second. "That Sword is meant to be in my Gringott's vault, locked away with all my possessions," she snarls, her lips almost touching my face, "so how did you get it?"

My breathing is shaky and choked sobs leave my lips, so I don't respond with anything other than sobs and shaky breathing. "HOW DID YOU GET IT?!" She screams at me, tiny balls of spit landing on my cheek. I lie and manage to get out the words, "I don't know", but I instantly regret opening my mouth as I see Bellatrix raise her dagger.

"Wrong answer, sweetheart," she snarls as she leans over and rips the sleeve of my shirt off. I feel the blade of her dagger slide across the skin of my arm and as soon as I feel it pierce my skin, I start to scream and wriggle again, trying to escape from Bellatrix's claws. She keeps slicing into my arm despite my persistent screaming and she even starts to cackle at me, clearly finding an overwhelming sense of joy in the torture she's putting me through. 

I'm not aware of how much time has passed but it feels like hours, even though it's probably only been a few minutes. As Bellatrix stands up and moves away from me, I slowly turn my head, tears dripping onto the floor and with no energy left in my body, to see what this evil woman has etched into my arm.

Liar.

Traitor.

Worthless.

With all my energy gone, I don't put up a fight when Bellatrix crawls over to me and hauls my body up, holding me up by my hair and the back of my jacket. "I'm done with her for now," she snaps, a large bored sigh leaving her lips, "Scabior, why don't you have some fun with her?"

My eyes heavy, I try to blink through the tears as my body is thrown into Scabior's chest. I look up to see his lustful eyes and his flirtatious smirk, sending a disgusted chill through my skin. 

"Hello, beautiful," he whispers as he drags me out of the main room into a side hallway, blood trickling down my scarred arm.

Harry... please... do something...